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[RaDragon]

I luv this article. Quite insightful, however, I have some notes below, not always because of the techie content of the flick, though

10) Wargames - 1983 -- can't stand it

9) The Italian Job - 2003 -- pretty kewl

Antitrust - 2001 -- lolz; yah, especially their intro -- HTML markup? lol

7) Hackers - 1995 -- DUDE. THIS IS A CLASSIC!

6) Transporter 2 - 2005 -- you didn't like the madelines?

5) Swordfish - 2001 -- but you know the story was good; i mean, don't we need Operation Swordfish right now?

4) Goldeneye - 1995 -- Boris is da bomb.

3) Mission: Impossible - 1996 -- floppy disks are overrated!

2) Jurassic Park - 1993 -- didn't really watch it

1) Firewall - 2006 -- haven't seen it.

[madmyk]

ok...I had to register to comment on the description of wargames AND one of the replies here about it.

The author was correct there was no internet...as we know it now.

The kid (mathew brodderick) didn't surf the net and find the computer system to hack into it, he used a dialing program that woudl randomly try different phone numbers hoping a computer with a modem would answer.  This was not unrealistic.  I had a modem for my computer...a commodore 64....which I would often leave on auto answer at night (after my parents went to bed) so that a friend could call and log on and we could chat.  This is exactly what happened in wargames.  He randomly dialed into a backdoor number which was left open by the person who wrote the AI software.  The AI software...programmed (I recall...correct me if I am wrong) to mimic the programmer's sons personality.  The AI often played games with the creator, which included Tic-Tac-Toe.  This is for SalinityBased, who admittedly says he was fuzzy on the details, but...the climatic scene in the movie was innitated after brodderick decided to play global thermonuclear war with the computer, the computer wrongly thought it was not playing but had to initiate it.  Only after broderick made it play tic-tac-toe against itself did the AI realize that you can't win at tic-tac-toe OR thermonuclear war.  The computer playing tic-tac-toe against itself again and again and again...then playing thermonuclear war scenerios out over and over convinced it that there could be no winner in nuclear war.  The 'count down' wasn't it breaking a code, it was playing t-t-t against itself.  If I am wrong on any of that...I hope someone straightens ME out. 

Yeah.  I am not sure why I had to register to straighten that out....perhaps because when it came out I wanted to BE broddericks character. 

[Pylon]

OK, add me to the list of those registering just to complain...ok, comment...

I can't belive S1mOne didn't make this list.  I can only assume it's because no one has seen it. 

But here is a brief rundown of the film and why it deserves a spot.  Al Pacino is a film director who gets his hands on an AI program and uses it to star in his films until it all goes bad, then tries to destroy it.  He gets arrested for murder, then is cleared when he uses the AI to make a news release showing she is alive. 

OK, here's the thing.  The system is a very complex, very advanced pile of hardware.  (Remeber this was made in 2002.)  When he wants to destroy the program, he loads up a virus...with a 5.25 FLOPPY DISK!!!  Then his daughter (I think) fixes the system by putting the disk back in (she found it in the trash) and hitting a few keys.  The entire program is restored magically.  It wasn't a bad idea for a film, but just a disgrace as far as the tech goes.

[Cunno]

Hey all

Transporter 2? Because he looked up a criminal record in his car? Here in Adelaide South Australia our police have had this for years they can look up registration, licence, warrants and criminal records from their patrol cars in a matter of seconds! They have an approx 20cm lcd screen mounted on the console with a small keyboard as well. I saw this this first hand when my car was stolen they caught the thieves red handed and they came an got me an gave me a lift back to my car 3 am on a Sunday morn! The system was developed by Motorola in the late ninties and is based around mobile phone technology.....

Cheers Cunno

[carl0ski]

Anti Trust should be on this list.

All other there are because the unbelievable technology
Anti Trust is there because someone has a grudge against the portrayal of the boss
.

Definetly one of the most ignorant scenes i have seen

Negotiator (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120768/

The convicted hacker sits at the computer terminal Sam L Jackson ask him to run a search for Pension Fund.,

Here is was he typed in the Dialogue labelled Search
"Find Disability Fund"

that like typing "search for google" in a google search

Find

[kcfootloose]

If your list had been titled "Top 10 Amusing Depictions of Technology in the Movies" then I'd applaud your commentary, but since you've taken a pessimistic view I have to strongly disagree. 

It seems your complaints fall into two categories:

1.  Movies portray IT guys as brilliant.
2.  Movies visualize ones and zeros.

1.  We've seen plenty of depictions of techies as socially inept nerds who can't get a date, so why in the world would you complain about movies that portray techies as geniuses able to accomplish amazing feats?  In Firewall, Harrison Ford's character finds a way to capture thousands of customer account numbers with a contraption devised from a fax machine and an iPod.  It's believable.  Sure, in reality it would probably take someone 6 months to produce such a device, but in the movies time is compressed so Harrison Ford's character whips this contraption together in mere minutes.  Inspiring! 

I always get a chuckle when in the movies, information in any database in the world can be obtained with just two keystrokes and a mouse click.  Not realistic I know, but it would slow the momentum down in a movie if the hacker spent hours/days at it.  To keep the story moving forward and prevent it from getting boring, it is essential to just bring up on the computer monitor whatever information the characters need in two seconds flat.  This is the same reason that in the movies characters driving in a crowded city always find a parking spot right in front of the place where they are going.  The screenwriter does not want to slow down the pace of the film by showing the reality of the characters driving around for 45 minutes hunting for a spot (unless of course it is a comedy and there's not much else going on in the plot).

2.  A computer virus is depicted as a 3-D shape in "Swordfish".  Data moving around in a computer is shown residing in "buildings" on the circuit board in "Hackers".  Hey, duh, this is a movie, right?  Movies are a visual medium.  This is not a story told over the radio or something you are reading in a book.  We're watching it on a screen.  It is okay if Hollywood wants to visualize what is going on because the reality that we can't see electrons moving around is pretty boring for an audience.  For years, Hollywood showed data centers with spinning tape drives decades after the technology had been replaced with tape cartridges that don't move.  Hollywood will add lots of colored, lit up light displays to computers just to symbolize what a lot of computing power "looks like".  This is okay.

What I love most about technology in films is that everything is so user-friendly.  Computers provide meaningful status messages and never crash.  Hardware is so simple to connect and use.  The technology industry could learn a few things.

So quit complaining and embrace how great the film industry makes technology and us techies look!

Ken Collins
Hoboken, NJ

[chase!]

hay guyz, i'm a fag from digg who hates people's opinions but believe my opinion is fact.

kbye

[Indigo.inc]

oh error
*studio audience laughs*

[vare2]

I find your list very entertaining if not entirely accurate. Anyway, JP shouldnt be on this list because you are discriminating against the user, not the technology, while the title of your list made it clear you are poking fun at the latter. Or should I go around teaching lil girls how to use Unix just to prove you wrong 

[GideonX]

I'd be very impressed if a little girl even knew what UNIX was, let alone know what do with it.

But yes, this list is meant to amuse, hopefully it drove that point home